For Pope Francis’
Mass at Madison Square Garden, God Is in the Details...Novus Ordo Style.
It was supposed to be Billy Joel’s 67th
moment in the spotlight at Madison Square Garden. Instead, it will be Pope
Francis’ first. On Friday, Sept. 25, the pope will celebrate a 90-minute Mass
in the same space where Joe Frazier triumphed over Muhammad Ali during the
“Fight of the Century” in 1971.
For one day, the arena will become a
house of worship. The Knicks’ and Rangers’ championship banners, the Liberty
banners, as well as the American and Canadian flags, will still hang. But on
the Eighth Avenue side of Madison Square Garden, between 31st and 33rd Streets,
there will be a sanctuary.
About 6:15 p.m., the pope will circle
the arena in a four-seat golf cart to greet the 20,000 worshipers.
While recommendations from the Vatican
were to keep the event simple, the preparations have been anything but.
Setting the Stage
The stage, the sanctuary and three
aisles will be covered with white carpeting, and the front of the stage will be
decorated with long-stemmed white roses. A sweeping white canopy resembling a
pope’s hat was built over the sanctuary.
“We were instructed to keep it simple
and classy but not to overdo anything,” said Dan Parise, whose production
company, Diversified Production Services, has spent months getting ready for
the pope.
At the center will be the papal chair.
“Cathedra,” in Latin, means “chair,” and in Catholicism, a chair represents
teaching authority and unity. One of the thrones presented to Pope Paul VI
during his 1965 trip was a gold-painted, hand-carved Victorian chair. Francis’
throne is made of humble birch and oak plywood, with a mahogany-like finish. It
was built by four men, laborers from Obreros Unidos in Yonkers and Don Bosco
Workers in Port Chester, N.Y., nonprofit groups that aid immigrant workers.
The altar and the ambo, where the
readings will be delivered, were made of slabs of oak veneer plywood bought
from King Lumber and Home Depot for about $1,700. They were built by three
students from Lincoln Hall Boys’ Haven, a school for at-risk youth in
Lincolndale, N.Y., who worked under a master carpenter.
The cotton and polyester linens that
will cover the altar were designed by six Mexican women in Yonkers, who are
taking sewing classes as part of Proyecto Madres, a collective run by Catholic
Charities Archdiocese of New York. They stitched large brown crosses encircled
with green leaves on two 4-by-12.5-foot cotton cloths using about $300 worth of
materials.
The Pre-Mass Show
A two-hour pre-Mass show will keep the
audience engaged as people wade through metal detectors and Francis wends his
way downtown from East Harlem. The organizers are calling the show “A Journey
in Faith,” a sequence of videos, catechesis, prayer and performances by, among
others, Harry Connick Jr., Gloria Estefan and Jennifer Hudson.
The program will also include a
recitation of the rosary, with 10,000 rosaries to be distributed throughout the
crowd.
The concession stands will offer the
usual hot dogs, chicken fingers and pretzels, as well as higher-end fare like
Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Simply Chicken sandwich, Andrew Carmellini’s
Sausage Boss and Drew Nieporent’s Daily Burger. Forget the beer: Alcoholic
beverages will not be sold.
Papal trinkets will also be on sale,
including the official lapel pin for his visit and Pope Francis Christmas
ornaments.
For those seeking the Sacrament of
Reconciliation, 56 confessional stations will be set up throughout the
building.
The Papal Mass
This Mass will follow the same order as
Mass does in every parish in the archdiocese.
According to Archdiocese of New York,
the theme of the Mass is peace and justice and it will be said in three
languages: English, Latin and Spanish. The Universal Prayer will be said in
Gaelic, Mandarin, English, French and Italian. Because this Friday is not a
special day on the Catholic calendar, Francis will wear green vestments. He
will also carry the pastoral staff used by Pope Paul VI during his 1965 visit.
In the sanctuary will be 40 bishops from
New York state, 13 seminarians serving as acolytes (instead of altar boys or
girls), five bishops traveling with the pope, four deacons, a cantor and
several lay members of the papal entourage.
The concelebrating priests, of which
there will be more than 1,000, will bring their own chasubles, cape-like
garments, and the bishops will wear ones borrowed from St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
At least one will carry a crosier, a staff resembling a shepherd’s. There will
be four cardinals, 600 nuns and more than 200 deacons.
There will be not be a Bible on the
altar. Instead, Francis will have a special missal printed by the Holy See.
There will be seven processional candles, six altar candles and one thurible
filled with incense made of a frankincense and sandalwood blend.
Ten gift bearers will bring the bread,
wine and water and five parishioners from the archdiocese will offer the
petitions for the Prayer of the Faithful.
During communion, 200 eucharistic
ministers will fan out in the aisles to distribute 25,000 communion wafers. A
case of communion wine, about nine liters, will be consecrated, but only
priests and bishops concelebrating the Mass will receive it.
The director of music at St. Patrick’s
Cathedral, Jennifer Pascual, said she selected the music to be “user friendly”
and “inclusive.”
There will be seven anthems for the
125-member choir, which has been rehearsing for about a month, and 12
congregational songs. Also on hand will be a 40-person orchestra that Dr.
Pascual will conduct, two organists who will play on a borrowed electric organ
— “It’s not ideal to use the sports organ,” she said — one cantor and one
soloist.
Francis does not typically sing during
Mass, she said, but what is said to be his favorite hymn, “Pescador de
Hombres,” will be sung in Spanish during communion. Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan
will chant the intonations for the call and response.
Aftermath
After Mass, the pope will go for a quick
greeting to an overflow theater where more than 5,000 people will have watched
on monitors. The leftover communion wafers will be distributed to local
parishes, but the archdiocese doesn’t know where the chair, the altar and the
ambo will go.
The Madison Square Garden crew will come
in as it does after every event and break down the altar, sweep the floors and
pick up the trash. And Billy Joel, using some of the same set-up, will take the
stage on Saturday.
Andy Newman and Noah Remnick contributed
reporting.
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